Emergy and ecosystem complexity

The question “What drives complexity?” is addressed in this paper. To answer this question, we explore the way energy and material resources of different quality flow through ecosystems and support, directly and indirectly, ecosystems growth and development. Processes of resource transformation throughout the ecosystem build order, cycle materials, generate and sustain information. Energy drives all these processes and energetic principles explain much of what is observed, including energy degradation according to the laws of thermodynamics. Emergy, a quantitative measure of the global environmental work supporting ecosystem dynamics, is used here in order to provide a deeper understanding of complexity growth and decline in ecosystems. Ecosystem complexity is discussed in this paper in relation to changes in structure, organization and functional capacity, as explained by changes in emergy, empower, and transformity.